The Path of the Ronin
by Empshok
Summary: Tsuriai's adventures begin.  A composition of what happens to him before he meets Aang.  Read, and enjoy.
1. Awakening

Note: I've heard that a lot of people don't like to hear about new characters with different abilities. Well, please read all the chapters before you decide that it isn't worth your time.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar. I've watched it a lot, but I don't own it. This disclaimer goes for all chapters.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

**The Path of the Ronin**

Chapter 1: The Awakening of the Avatar

Tsuriai sat up quickly, alarmed. He felt something very big was going to happen. It was clear in a moment, as a beam of light shot up from the south. It was very far away; in fact, it seemed to even be past the Southern Air Temple, right on down at the Southern Water Tribe. It must have been a huge beam of light, if he could see it here, on the other side of the world.

He had to get to a town soon. His food supply was running low, and he was keen on some entertainment. So, to save what food he had, he got out his fishing line and quickly caught himself some breakfast.

Tsuriai grasped the fish in his hand concentrated hard. Within a few seconds, he had himself a delicious, fresh, hot-off-the-hand fish breakfast, which he ate quickly.

He made the long trip up the stairs to the cliff, where the footsteps remained. Pushing them out of his mind, he journeyed north, where he hoped to find a small town in the gorge.

As he walked, he practiced controlling his unique bending ability. He had made some new discoveries; if he used a large ball of fire, there was a greater concussion effect, and if he used a lot of water, there was a great flash and the air glowed white longer.

So Tsuriai took a deep breath, gathered energy in his right hand, and released a large fireball towards the ground, at the same time exhaling. Exactly after that, he shot a small bubble of water from his water bottle. The two collided and created a crater in the ground five feet wide. Tsuriai was amused.

So for the next several days, Tsuriai walked north. On the third afternoon, he came across a herd of something that looked like a cross between a cow and a horse. It had a wide body like a cow, but the head of a horse, and they did not make noise. But he weaved his way through him, and had an extra spring in his step; signs of animals such as these could only mean one thing; he was getting close to a town.

Sure enough, around mid-evening, he saw a caravan moving towards a small hill, which he presumed to be the town. So he smiled and walked towards the hill.

Suddenly, he heard a rumbling from the south. Startled, he looked back and saw the whole herd galloping towards him. Stampede!

Thinking quickly, he shot a small fireball into the air, and shot the entire contents of the water bottle at the fireball. They collided.

There was a massive, blinding flash of light, a small, but loud concussion, and a sun-bright glowing sphere suspended in the air. The steer-steed herd stopped immediately, and scattered left and right.

Smiling slightly, he turned around and continued his course.


	2. The Meeting

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Path of the Ronin

Chapter 2: The Meeting

Tsuriai pressed onward. As he neared the hill, he found out that it was a very small hill, with a door, a chimney, and two small windows. The hill was rounded at the top, with a healthy plot of emerald green grass situated on top.

He stopped, wondering if this was it. As he stopped moving, he heard water some distance to the west. He knew it couldn't be the ocean; his father had taught him to have a good sense of direction and location. He kept a map of the northern Earth Kingdom with him for reference, but all he had to do was look once; he knew exactly how far he traveled each day.

So he walked to the door, which had a note scribbled on it saying, "Alex off for a time; gone hunting."

This just kept on making less and less sense. Who was the note to? How many people could there really be around here? Well, just for measures, he knocked anyway.

There was no answer; so he decided to add to the note (using very careful firebending technique) an additional note, "My name is Tsuriai; I stopped by earlier; will stop by again in a few hours, looking for a place to resupply."

Carefully cooling the note so it would not burn off, he walked towards the sound of the water.

The source of the sound was a good-sized waterfall; it emptied into a large pool which trickled down a stream further north, probably emptying into the ocean.

He knew it was fresh water, but because he had a bad experience with river water, he decided to take the precaution and clean it using firebending. This process was simpler than with salt water, as it was just to kill impurities. He re-chilled the water and put it into his bottle.

Tsuriai decided to take this chance to experiment with his abilities. As he was far away from any wildlife that he knew of, he would try his concussion effect out.

Gathering about a gallon of water in one hand, and as massive a fireball as he could create in the other, he threw them both off together about 50 feet away. When they collided, there was such a huge concussion he was still knocked back into the pool of water. It was very cold.

He stepped out and quickly dried himself out with firebending. Looking at the spot where he had created the explosion, he noticed that, predictably, there was a small crater in the ground. He braced himself this time for another try.

However, as he got both the fire and the water ready, he noticed a huge amount of dust rising from the ground, as if from a very fast animal. It was coming towards him. Fast.

Alarmed, he braced for the concussion as now he had a target. He waited for it to come closer, but it stopped about 100 feet away. The dust settled instantly. It was a girl!

"Hey! Don't attack me! I just want to talk to you!" She yelled.

Tsuriai hesitated, and then dropped the water and extinguished the flame. "Okay. Come closer so we don't have to yell!"

As she came, he noticed that she was very pretty. Her hair was as auburn as the aura of the setting sun, her eyes green as emeralds, and her skin had a healthy tan, but it was rather dirty.

She approached him and smiled. Hi! Are you…Soor-aye-ee? Am I pronouncing it right?"

Tsuriai smiled. "It's pronounced soo-ree-eye. And yes, I am he. Are you Alex?"

She shook her head. "No, that's not me. I'm Alera. He's the only other sandbender we have, though. All the others live in the desert. There are quite a few, but they aren't all in one place. They travel a lot."

Tsuriai cried, "You're a sandbender? I've never met one before! I…wait, did you say we?"

"Yep," she nodded. "There are currently only nine of us, as opposed to the twelve that we had hoped for, but all the same we are known as the Guild of Ronin."


	3. The Guild of Ronin

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Path of the Ronin

Chapter 3: The Guild of Ronin

"The Guild of Ronin? What sort of guild is that?" asked Tsuriai.

"The Guild of Ronin consists of benders who have two elemental abilities," said Alera. "There aren't very many of us; at least, not many that wanted to join."

Tsuriai felt skeptical. How could it be possible that he could have just _stumbled_ upon a guild of people like himself? "What two abilities do you have?"

Alera pulled up some sand from the beach about 500 feet away from them and swirled it around her hands. "With sandbending, it's a little more complicated. A long time ago, a group of airbenders and earthbenders decided that they wanted to intermingle. After a couple of years, they realized that their kids seemed to have weak airbending and earthbending abilities. So when they came of age—that time being 16 years old—their parents left them all to each other, and decided that intermingling wasn't a good idea.

"So the sandbenders either had to come live with their father or their mother. At first, they were hurt, but amongst them was a great leader, my great-great-great grandfather, Atiko. He decided that either way, they would not be taught by the other parent, meaning they would grow up imbalanced in their learning of that parent's bending ability. So, he decided to lead them away from both earthbenders and airbenders alike, into the desert. It was there that they learned their sandbending ability. If you want to learn the history of where they learned it, you'll have to go into the desert. But perhaps you should come with another sandbender, as they aren't very nice to strangers.

"But what I do know is that sandbenders move sand or dirt using a technique derived from earth and air bending. It's unique; you see, only the Avatar or sandbenders can actually create sandstorms. Sandbenders are excellent at moving sand. One sandbender can turn a sand dune into a valley in a matter of minutes. But we have gotten a few traits from both air and earth bending. For example, we can move very fast on something similar to the air scooter, but it kicks up a ton of dust. That's what you saw when I was coming towards you, and it's simply called (brace yourself) a sand scooter."

Tsuriai chuckled. Then he asked, "So, are you unable to airbend or earthbend?"

"No," she replied, "We can still airbend and earthbend, it's just really weak. So we find it easier to just sandbend. So, you're a Pyro?"

"I'm a what?" Tsuriai asked, confused.

"A Pyro! It means you're a water and fire bender. We don't have one in our guild any more. Have you never heard of others like yourself?"

Tsuriai pondered. He had hoped in the back of his mind that there was somebody who could teach him, but he had accepted that he would probably have to learn on his own, and that didn't really bother him.

"No, I've never actually heard of any others," Tsuriai replied. "So, tell me about this guild. Do you have a purpose?"

"Again, we are the Guild of Ronin. I happen to be the leader. Why don't you come inside so I can introduce you?"

"Um…okay," Tsuriai consented, reluctantly.

Alera hesitated. "Have you learned to jump yet?"

Tsuriai snorted. "I think that everybody learned how to jump when they were very young."

She glared at him. "I'll take that as a no…well, if you want to try, I've seen it done before. Basically, as a Pyro, you can shoot yourself long distances with one of your concussion blasts. But you have to be careful, because you can burn yourself a little if you're not careful."

A little? Tsuriai thought. He couldn't see how launching oneself into the air hundreds of feet could possibly be safe or sane.

She concentrated for a second and proclaimed, "That's right! You have to create a fireball underneath you with a very small amount of water. Why don't you try a small jump first? Don't worry, it shouldn't hurt you."

Tsuriai laughed in spite of himself. Well, he was looking for entertainment, but he didn't realize it would have to be at his expense.

So, reluctantly, putting down his stuff, Tsuriai timed himself to create a small fireball and a tiny squirt of water right under him.

He launched himself about ten feet into the air, and, with a latent instinct, threw both hands in front of him right before he landed; creating an invisible pillow that broke his fall, and he landed, comfortably, on his feet.

"Hey, that wasn't so hard!" He exclaimed, excitedly. "But what was that at the end?"

"I'm not quite sure," she said. "When Jet did it, he always did the same thing. Landed as if he had jumped two feet into the air, when really he had jumped from one mountain range to another. That was before he gave it all up. Poor guy…"

"He jumped a mountain range?!?!" Tsuriai was beginning to like the sound of this. Perhaps he would be able to get from place to place faster if he wanted to!

But where had he heard that name before…Jet…well; anyway he decided that he would try a bigger jump.

Tsuriai smiled and asked, "Where exactly is your guild?" He was ready to try it out.

_(On a side note, the mention of Jet is not coincidental. Jet is, at least in my account, a Pyro as well. He forsook his abilities when his parents were killed by fire nation. He forsook his firebending ability for obvious reasons and his waterbending because it reminded him of his parents. His dad was a waterbender, and his mother was a firebender. When they died, he forsook his bending—mainly firebending—as evil and created his band of, well, robbers. And that is how we know him today.)_


	4. follow the yellow brick road

Avatar: The Last Airbender

**The Path of the Ronin**

**Chapter 4: Oh, we're off to see the Guild, the wonderful Guild of Ronin!**

"Why don't you wait for awhile to try jumping with a destination?" Alera suggested. "I—I think that I can create a big enough sand scooter for two people. But you'd have to hold on tight."

Tsuriai tried to hide his excitement by acting bored. "Umm…well—"

"Or we could just walk, if you want," she interrupted quickly, "I understand if you aren't comfortable riding with me—I mean, like, with a sandbender, you know. So, well, let's—"

"No, no, no, I mean, sure, I'll ride this sand scooter thing…with you. I mean, how bad can it be?" Tsuriai smiled at Alera. She smiled back. Her straight, white teeth shined like pearl and her auburn hair waved in the breeze.

"Okay. Come on over here," she instructed. "Come behind me, cross your arms around my waist and when I say go, lift your feet off the air." He wrapped his arms around her.

"I would say don't get any ideas, but you probably already have." She said, smiling wryly, and Tsuriai just stuttered and loosened his grip a little. "Just don't get used to this, I'm hoping you'll learn how to jump properly soon."

"Now I warn you, I haven't really mastered landing with another person, so you will probably fall off when we get there. Ready? Okay! 1…2—"

"—WAIT!" Tsuriai cried. "I forgot my stuff." Tsuriai ran back to go collect his pack and his staff, returned, and for a second time, he put his arms around her, acting a little more reluctant this time. And to add to the effect he said, "Let's get this over with."

"Okay. Ready? 1…2…3…GO!!!"

Tsuriai lifted his feet off the air and immediately an impenetrable pocket of air developed below both of them. He kneeled down on it and tried to keep his balance. He took this as an excuse to tighten his hold. Alera saw through his excuse and set off quickly.

Soon, they were zooming across the plain, kicking up loads of dust behind them. It settled quickly, though; it seemed that Alera was keeping it under control as well as speeding them along. The wind whipped across his face and body, and he had to hold on even tighter. Tsuriai could not see, but Alera smiled a little.

Within 5 minutes, Tsuriai could see the hill. Within 5 seconds of seeing the hill, they were right next to it. Alera decelerated quickly, and the sand scooter vanished before they were at a standstill. Tsuriai had not let go; he didn't expect the scooter to vanish so quickly; the result was Alera lost her balance and Tsuriai fell on top of her.

He got off quickly and said, "Sorry! I didn't know you were going to do that. I didn't mean to—"

"It's all right. You're fine. But don't expect to do that again." "…soon," she added, under her breath.

"Okay. Well, anyway, I'm guessing that the majority of your, um, headquarters is underground."

"You guessed it. Come on in!" He entered, and he was actually surprised to see a pair of couches surrounding a rug, and a small fireplace to the side. That was it.

Tsuriai was confused. "But I thought you said—"

"—I did." She interjected, giving him another smile. "Would you do me a favor and lift up that rug?" Tsuriai looked up. "Ahhhhh….I get it."

Tsuriai lifted up the rug and saw…the ground. He stared at it, waiting.

"Uh, Tsuriai? It seems that you're going to have to, um, well, we'll get to that part in a second. Okay, I'm going to stand right here," She stood where the rug was, "and you come right here. I'm sorry, but my earthbending is not very good, so it's going to be tight."

Tsuriai stood right in front of her, so that they were almost nose to nose. Tsuriai got goose bumps.

"Just…stand still, okay?" she asked nervously. They descended slowly, the earth moving like an elevator beneath them.

The walls were soon very close. They tried to avoid eye contact, but at one point in time, they caught each other's eyes. They quickly looked away, and Tsuriai hit his head against the cylindrical wall. Alera smiled again, this time looking away.

Finally, they stopped.


End file.
